The recent death of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whose story inspired The Terminal, was probably the first time most people had thought of the movie in years.
Grade: C+ (**1/2* out f *****)
- The recent death of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whose story inspired The Terminal, was probably the first time most people had thought of the movie in years.
But, alas, overall, The Terminal is one of Spielberg’s weakest films, borderline embarrassing considering the brilliance of his most other pictures–despite the presence of frequent collaborating actor, Tom Hanks.
| The Terminal | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
The film is partially inspired by the true story of the 18-year stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in Terminal 1 of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006.
In 1988, Nasseri flew from Brussels to London via Paris; however, he was sent back to Paris due to losing his refugee passport. Nasseri lived in the transit area of the Terminal 1 until 2006, after France denied him entry.
Nasseri received a lot of money from the filmmakers, but none of the studio’s publicity materials mention story as inspiration for the film; the 1993 French feature Lost in Transit was also inspired by that story.
Spielberg himself later acknowledged his debut to French director Jacques Tati’s 1958 classic satire, Play Time.
After finishing his previous film, Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg wanted to next make a film “that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world.”
Due to lack of suitable airports willing to provide facilities for the production, an entire set was built inside large hangar at the LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, with most of the film’s exterior shots taken at the Montreal–Mirabel International Airport.
Hanks based his characterization of Viktor Navorski on his father-in-law Allan Wilson, a Bulgarian immigrant who spoke “Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek, little bit of Italian, little bit of French”, in addition to his native Bulgarian.
Serious reviewers noted that The Terminal was both blessed and cursed by its overly crowd-pleasing message.
While the film was light and sweet, it was also considerably contrived and shallow, lacking gravitas despite its well-meaning intent.
A summer release, it opened June 18, 2004, to mixed positive reviews, but it was a commercial success due to Hanks’ star turn, earning $219 million worldwide.
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by
Sacha Gervasi
Jeff Nathanson
Story by
Andrew Niccol
Sacha Gervasi
Produced by
Walter F. Parkes
Laurie MacDonald
Steven Spielberg
Starring
Tom Hanks
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Cinematography Janusz Kamiński
Edited by Michael Kahn
Music by John Williams
Production
companies
Amblin Entertainment
DreamWorks Pictures
Parkes/MacDonald Productions
Distributed by DreamWorks Distribution
Release date: June 18, 2004
Running time: 128 minutes
Languages: English, Bulgarian, Russian
Budget $60 million
Box office $219.4 million
